ed the
manners of what they called the old court.

When the queen was informed by her husband that it was the celebrated
Ogier the Dane whom he presented to her, whose memorable exploits she
had often read in the chronicles of antiquity, her surprise was
extreme, which was increased when she remarked the dignity of his
address, the animation and even the youthfulness of his countenance.
This queen had too much intelligence to believe hastily; proof alone
could compel her assent; and she asked him many questions about the old
court of Charlemagne, and received such instructive and appropriate
answers as removed every doubt. It is to the corrections which Ogier
was at that time enabled to make to the popular narratives of his
exploits that we are indebted for the perfect accuracy and
trustworthiness of all the details of our own history.

King Hugh Capet, having received that same evening couriers from the
inhabitants of Chartres, informing him that they were hard pressed by
the besiegers, resolved to hasten with Ogier to their relief.

Ogier terminated this affair as expeditiously as he had so often done
others. The Saracens having dared to offer battle, he bore the
Oriflamme through the thickest of their ranks; Papillon, breathing fire
from his nostrils, threw them into disorder, and Cortana, wielded by
his invincible arm, soon finished their overthrow.

The king, victorious over the Saracens, led back the Danish hero to
Paris, where the deliverer of France received the honors due to his
valor. Ogier continued some time at the court, detained by the favor of
the king and queen; but erelong he had the pain to witness the death of
the king. Then it was that, impressed with all the perfections which he
had discerned in the queen, he could not withhold the tender homage of
the offer of his hand. The queen would perhaps have accepted it, she
had even called a meeting of her great barons to deliberate on the
proposition, when, the day before the meeting was to be held, at the
moment when Ogier was kneeling at her feet, she perceived a crown of
gold which an invisible hand had placed on his brow, and in an instant
a cloud enveloped Ogier, and he disappeared forever from her sight. It
was Morgana, the fairy, whose jealousy was awakened at what she beheld,
who now resumed her power, and took him away to dwell with her in the
island of Avalon. There, in company with the great King Arthur of
Britain, he still lives, and when h